The good-old Peterson 44 – After 45,000 miles

The P-44’s main saloon is, unfortunately, dominated by the presence of the mast running right through the
dinette table. But it’s a “feature” you get used to that provides a good handhold in rough weather and a good
place to fix a kerosene lamp. Across the way, the starboard settee makes a great seaberth.
Tankage for water is under the cabin
sole in four s.s. tanks totaling 125 gallons.
These tanks have been known to
leak, so be sure to inspect them. The fuel
tanks were originally steel and also have
caused problems; on Zorana, we just had
the great fun of replacing them with nice
new aluminum ones.
Back in the ‘70s and early ‘80s, several
P-44s were put into the charter trade down
in St. Lucia, West Indies, and Raiatea,
French Polynesia. They became quite famous
for their bullet-proof qualities.
These P-44s were ridden hard and put
away wet, so buyer beware. A few P-44s
were imported to Europe in the early
1980s, and Zorana was one of these.
The shakedown
In the spring of 1985, we drove to
Flensburg to commission our new/old
boat. Our plan was to enjoy Zorana for
the Scandinavian summer, see what she
needed, and sail to England to outfit her.
She was really bare-bones, with only the
original three sails, one 45-lb. fake CQR
and minimum electronics. We put on a
VHF, hard dinghy with motor, and a secondhand
spinnaker. By the time we got
to England, we had proven she could sail
with the big boys, as the summer had
proven to be mean and nasty. As we
moored in Emsworth on England’s south
coast, our list included installing an Ar-
ies windvane, Sat-Nav (remember
those?), stove crash-bar, binnacle crashbar
and getting a 90% jib and a storm
staysail made.
Completing our first outfit, we
skedaddled out of England as it was time
to get south. Our trip down the Bay of
Biscay, northwest Spain, Portugal and
Madeira was uneventful as far as Zorana
was concerned. However, we weathered
several gales and continued to drag our
fake CQR anchor in several countries anchorages.
We should have bought a real
CQR in England, but you can’t remember
everything!
After enjoying the warmth in the Canaries,
we provisioned and set off for our
first long passage – transatlantic to the
Caribbean. After headwinds for a week
and then less than normal trade winds,
we were still able to average over 135
miles a day in lazy comfort with a poledout
genoa or occasional spinnaker.
Congratulating ourselves on a safe
passage while anchored in Marigot Bay,
I was restoring some gear under the aft
bunk when I noticed that the steering
cable had frayed at the turning block and
was literally hanging by a thread. This
would have been a real mess at sea if it
had broken. After removing the block and
filing off the offending eighth-inch of
stainless, we have not had a recurring
problem.
Refit for the Pacific
Number-two outfitting took place in
the Virgin Islands as we readied Zorana
for the South Pacific. Now we’re getting
serious about anchoring. We had a better
and stronger bow-roller made, and put
the old one on the port side. We purchased
a real 60-lb. CQR to go with our
200-feet of 3/8” chain for our main system.
For storms, we got a 66-lb. Bruce
with chain and rode, plus a 40-lb. real
CQR for back-up. Then we had a fulllength
cockpit bimini made, and with
closed-cell cockpit cushions, we have
our comforts. Noticing a flex problem at
the forestay deck chainplate, we had
made a backing-plate with padeye and
installed a babystay down to the hull.
Next, we had to change our propane system
for the European trade-in bottles to
two American 20-lb. aluminum bottles,
which entailed enlarging our propane/
helm box, but now we had enough gas
for three to five months.
Departing the Virgin Islands, Zorana
zoomed downwind to the Panama Canal
and then to the San Blas Islands, which
we had cruised in a previous boat back
in 1973 and (nice to say) things hadn’t
changed that much. The Panama Canal,
unfortunately, is not changing for the
better; however, our passage was uneventful
and reasonable.
4 Blue Water Sailing